Cahoon Museum show explores silhouettes

By Mary Richmond

Friday

Oct 20, 2017 at 3:03 PMOct 20, 2017 at 3:25 PM

When you hear the words ‘silhouettes’ and ‘art exhibit’ in the same breath, you may be tempted to let out a sigh, as an artist friend of mine did, when I mentioned the new exhibit at the Cahoon Museum of American Art, "Contemporary Silhouettes: The Art of Cut Paper."

“So boring,” she said, no doubt imagining those county fair silhouette portraits that used to adorn many stairway walls. Not this exhibit, though. It is anything but dull.

From the moment I walked into the bright and sunny gallery, I was mesmerized. These are not your grandmother’s cherished portraits. Fred Liang’s golden, light infused cut paper installation, “Stream,” hangs from the ceiling almost to the floor in the center of the gallery. It is large, yet airy. It is intricate and detailed, yet also whimsical and light. As a viewer you can walk around it, peer through it and watch it dance across your views of the other work on display around the room.

There are some traditional cut paper artists in the group, including Pamela Dalton, who creates minutely detailed works of a historical and literate nature. She was first influenced by the paper cuttings of Hans Christian Andersen when living in Denmark, and uses themes of patriotism, religion and rural life in the Sherenschnitte tradition. Her painstaking attention to even the tiniest detail is evident throughout.

Auguste Edouart remains true to the traditions of the art form while Elizabeth Alexander uses collage as well as cutting in her tiny pieces.

Lucy Gibbons Morse, 1839-1936, was a Cotuit artist who used surgical scissors to cut her charming vignettes of flowers and trees. Look closely and you’ll see the fairies and elves she added to her work, often disguised as part of the plants or leaves. Her book, “Breezes,” was filled with her cut paper illustrations and was quite popular in its time.

One of the most striking installations is that of monarch butterflies done by Randal Thurston. The piece covers an entire wall of the gallery and is visually stunning, filled with black paper butterflies pinned to the wall in ways that leave wonderful shadows. Intrigued by the fleetingness of butterflies as well as the fleetingness of memory, names of people Thurston has met are penciled on the wall beneath and between gatherings of butterflies.

Work by Tomas Vu-Daniel is both evocative and mysterious, with multiple layers of images. He thinks of silhouettes as elements of “flatness” and looks at the ways landscape, technology and war intermingle.

Yuan Zuo is a Chinese artist exploring censorship in his series “Local Politics.” He uses the technique of silhouettes to both cover up and reveal images that may or may not be allowed or discussed.

Ernesto Caivano has created a piece that is both provocative and abstract, with many layers, both physical and emotional.

All the artists in the exhibit explore the relationships of shape and form. Some illustrate a narrative while others create it. Standing in the room, flanked by the golden shapes of Liang’s cut paper sculpture, it is easy to contemplate the history and mystique of using cut paper to create imagery and art. Once primarily a tool for illustrators and graphic artists, this art is seeing a resurgence of interest as well as a stretching of boundaries.

The show was curated by director Sarah Johnson, who in her year or so in her position has managed to bring incredibly thoughtful and beautifully presented exhibits to the Cahoon. Leave your preconceptions about silhouettes at home and go see this show. Take a friend. Take a child. It’s an exhibit you’ll want to share and talk about.

Contemporary Silhouettes: the Art of Cut Paper

Where: Cahoon Museum of American Art, Route 28, Cotuit

When: Through Saturday, Dec. 23.

Hours and admission: The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. Admission is $10 general, $8 for seniors and students, and free for museum members and children under 12.

The Art of Impermanence

Join the Boston-based artist and Chair of the Fine Art 2D Department at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Fred Liang, as he shares his inspirations, history of the art form, and the temporary nature of working in cut paper.

William Beebe will share the fascinating story of his great-grandmother, Lucy Gibbons Morse (1839-1936), paper-cutting artist, author, and founder of the Cotuit Library. His talk includes the connections between Morse's abolitionist family and the art form of silhouettes, Cotuit history and photographs, and more.

Lecture included in the price of admission, RSVP required. Contact the museum to register, cmaa@cahoonmuseum.org or 508-428-7581.